The present invention is a game that is intended to train managers, sales persons, and/or customer service personnel, of organizations large and small, to think more creatively, and to cooperate more effectively with others, in managing the organization.
Large corporations often have many departments, and may employ thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of persons. The organizational charts describing such businesses can become very large and complex, and a manager in one department is usually unaware of the circumstances of his or her counterparts in another department. Indeed, the various departments or divisions of a large corporation may function autonomously, and may even behave as competitors of each other.
The management of large organizations, as well as relatively small organizations, such as business corporations, therefore requires the coordination of effort among various divisions, departments, and sub-sections, such that all components of the organization operate in a manner that maximizes the benefit for the organization as a whole.
Many corporate managers are taught to view business as a competitive sport. Such managers adopt an aggressive attitude towards the management of their organizations, and may be determined to xe2x80x9cwin at all costsxe2x80x9d. Such an attitude may have positive effects, in motivating the manager to exert maximum effort. But this attitude also may mean that a greater benefit to the larger organization could be lost due to an individual manager""s excessive desire to achieve a specific goal for his or her department. In an efficiently managed organization, all parts of the organization operate harmoniously, each being aware of the needs and desires of the other, and each being aware that working together can maximize profit for all.
The present invention is a game that is intended to train managers and/or other personnel, especially those working in corporations or other organizations, in an entertaining and non-threatening way, to think and plan more creatively in managing their organizations.
The present invention is a game that uses a large, flat playing area. The playing area is preferably square or rectangular, and is subdivided into smaller rectangles or blocks, each block being labeled with a number or other symbol. The game is played by a plurality of teams, each team preferably including five members.
With each team there is associated a wheeled cart, called a Grid Mobile, which fits within the space defined by any of the blocks. One member of the team is designated the Grid Master. The Grid Master sits on the Grid Mobile, while the other members of the team, called Rope Controllers, stand outside the boundary of the playing area, and hold ropes connected to their Grid Mobile. The Grid Mobile can therefore, in theory, be moved to any block within the playing area, by appropriate tugs on the rope by the Rope Controllers.
For each round of play, each Grid Master receives a card showing an assigned itinerary for his or her Grid Mobile. An itinerary comprises a sequence of numbers, indicating that the Grid Mobile must travel to the blocks identified by those numbers, in the indicated order. The participants are told, initially, that the object of the game is to move the Grid Mobiles to all of the blocks in their respective assigned routes, in the shortest amount of time, without experiencing paralysis of movement. A time limit is normally assigned, so that if no team finishes its route within the time limit, the first round of the game ends without resolution.
In their initial attempt at playing the game, the teams generally find themselves in a state of immobilization, or paralysis, a condition wherein one or more Grid Mobiles are blocked by other Grid Mobiles, and/or by ropes which become hopelessly entangled. The game may be terminated when such a condition of paralysis occurs. The participants eventually learn that if they try to win xe2x80x9cat all costsxe2x80x9d, they will cause everyone to lose. Only by coordination of efforts, within a team and among the different teams, will it be possible to reach a solution where all teams can complete their routes without paralysis. The set of all of the teams, comprising all participants in the game, is a metaphor for a larger organization, such as a business corporation, a school, or other entity. The game therefore teaches its players the value of creative thinking, strategic planning, communication, cooperation, and leadership.
The present invention therefore has the primary object of providing a game which trains its players to improve their management skills.
The invention has the further object of teaching the benefits of creative thinking, strategic planning, communication, cooperation, and leadership, in the management of an organization.
The invention has the further object of training managers, sales persons, and/or customer service personnel, of large, medium, and small organizations, such as corporations, to do their jobs more effectively.
The invention has the further object of providing management training in an entertaining and non-threatening manner.
The invention has the further object of providing training as discussed above, wherein the participants have an opportunity to improve their performance during a given session.
The invention has the further object of providing apparatus for playing a game which trains employees of large and small organizations to perform more effectively.
The reader skilled in the art will recognize other objects and advantages of the present invention, from the following brief description of the drawings, the detailed description of the invention, and the appended claims.